ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

WORDS

Catch The “Vibe”

Once, vibe, mood, and energy were watchwords of the counterculture. Today, this vocabulary has diffused beyond any niche group. - The Drift

The Limits Of The Young Adult Label

Selling books is complex, and author Malinda Lo, winner of the National Book Award for young people, says the label is just marketing. "I like very complicated people who make bad decisions because, you know what? Those are the ones who make the best characters." - Slate

Dear Audience, The Author Is Not Always The Novel’s Main Character

Or perhaps ever. Rebecca Watson: "I really don’t believe there’s a correlation ... but people try to map the piece onto the novel and interpret it as confessional. This novel was never an act of catharsis. It was a joyful act of creation." - The Guardian (UK)

When Your First Novel Becomes A Political Lightning Rod For The Side You Don’t Even Support

Ana Iris Simón has been "stunned not only by the success of her book, but also by how an ultranationalist and conservative audience ... embraced Feria as an ode to Spain’s traditional family values" - which, she says, it is not. - The New York Times

Isabel Allende Says The War Against Women Has Intensified

The writer of House of the Spirits says, "Didn’t I tell you that we live under a patriarchy? ... But women have been tearing bits and pieces out of the situation little by little. And they will succeed, but I will not be alive to see it." - El País (English)

Sometimes, Do Quit Your Day Job

Or, at least, that worked for Costa prize winner Caleb Azumah Nelson, who had been working at an Apple Store before an agent bit on his writing. - The Guardian (UK)

This Hitchhiking Author Didn’t Get In A Car That Offered Her A Ride

That 1973 decision might have saved Sally J. Morgan's life - and provided material for a book that just won Britain's Portico Prize prize. - BBC

Booker Prizewinner Says Look To Older Women For Richer Fiction

Bernadine Evaristo: "I’m always amused when my young students create frail, old characters hunched over walking sticks, only for them to tell me that they’re in their forties. I would have been the same." - LitHub

Above All, Literature Teaches Empathy

Writers and artists are not primarily trying to reform the world; their mission is to imagine it, to deliver it. Yes, there can be a profound ethical payload in such work, but it is rarely prescriptive or amenable to legislation. - LitHub

Reconsidering Classic Literature?

The old classics still have the power to move and transform young people in ways that no technical education can. We don’t have to dilute the practical value of a higher education nor ignore the insights of the academic humanities to restore the vitality of liberal education in our colleges and universities. - Aeon

The Myths Of A Common Language

If the confusion of tongues is not the primary source of human conflict, might the corollary be true: that resolving conflict doesn’t require a common language? - Psyche

The Newbery Award Has Been Honoring Children’s Books For 100 Years. Not All Of Them Hold Up.

People tend to give books that win classic or canonic status, presuming that a Newbery medalist from decades ago will always be good for today's kids. That isn't true, of course. So what should, and shouldn't, do we do about the winners that seem benighted these days? - Slate

LA Review of Books Founder Talks About The Challenges Of Running A Literary Publication

We had to learn to insert ourselves into social media conversations, and that will continue to be a series of moving goalposts. Facebook, for instance, was still free when we started, but they now actively shut down any attempts to spread word if you aren’t paying for it. - LitHub

Report: Americans Are Reading Fewer Books

“US adults are reading roughly two or three fewer books per year than they did between 2001 and 2016,” according to the report. - Publishing Perspectives

How Writers Create Fictional Maps For Their Narratives

As different novelistic styles, genres and methods of production have risen to prominence, they have enabled their own particular way of creating fictional terrain. These fictional worlds have, in turn, shaped our perceptions of the places we inhabit. - The Guardian

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